The Perfect Rule:  In all matters of opinion, our adversaries are insane!  Mark Twain

On May 23rd, 1959, Millyrose 'n me stood up in front of a Justice of the Peace in the basement of the courthouse in Morehead, Kentucky 'n got ourselves married…the best man wuz a good ol boy name of Beecher Taylor who I lost track of several years later…we had to wait for a little bit cuz Governor Happy Chandler wuz giving a speech upstairs…he offered to do the honors for us but I wuz just a little bit on the temperamental side back in those 'salad' daze 'n turned him down…dumb of me, I know, but I wuz a little snobbish about politicians back then…Happy got out of politics 'n went on to become baseball Commish which is a big step up by anyone's standards…

Anyway, t'day wuz our 53rd Anniversary which sez a whole lot for Millyrose's sticktoitiveness 'n my general good luck…I got to say that I think I've been pretty lucky most of my life considering my general lackadaisicalness 'n all…

All in all, it wuz a very pleasant anniversary day beginning as it did with coffee 'n cornflakes 'n a stroll around Village Park with da boyz, after which we hopped into the Matrix 'n pedaled fast as I c'd down highway 5 0 to what wuz once the little town of Santa Rosa…crowded place now, all squeezed up between the surrounding low mountains (in Ky, we'd just call 'em hills but in California, they're mountains)…We had lunch at a golf course with some of her siblings, caught up on some pleasant, if innocuous, conversations 'n some half-hearted plans for the fam'ly reunion in July (where, when, whatever) 'n home again, home again, jiggety-jog…neighbor Doug asked me how far it wuz to Santa Rosa 'n I told him that it wudn't near as far as it use'ta be back in the old daze….Time wuz, it took 3 hours or a little more 'n now it's a little less than 2 (barring the unforeseen, of course)…same thing with Ell Lay…back in the early daze of our California adventure, it took almost 12 hours to or from but now with the new (almost) freeways 'n the improved automocars, it only takes a little over 5 hours…'course, all things considered, it wuz a much nicer drive back then…there were a couple of those Giant Orange drive-ins 'n in Merced, Lucky Lager had an open-air beer stand right in the middle of town…99 highway wuz a good road to ride in those halcyon daze….

"A man who carries a cat by the tail learns sumthing he can't learn any other way."  Mark Twain